On Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie asked special correspondent Tom Brokaw about his recent comment
that the press "has to be careful about having a glass jaw" when it
comes to the Obama Justice Department investigating reporters: "...you
made a remark that journalists...shouldn't have what you called a 'glass
jaw' when it comes to some of these investigations, citing the First
Amendment and threats to the First Amendment." [Listen to the audio]

Brokaw stood by his statement: "Well, the First Amendment is a critically important part of the Constitution. It is not unconditional, obviously.
Any number of us over the years have been in dialogues and in
conversations with senior government officials about when something can
be disclosed and under what circumstances. And it's kind of case by
case. It's not unconditional."

Guthrie began the exchange by noting: "Eric Holder under fire for some
fairly aggressive prosecutions involving the subpoenaing of records of
reporters, and in some cases tracking their movements. There are calls,
again, for him to resign." The headline on screen read: "AG Under Fire."

Turning to Brokaw, Guthrie wondered: "The heat is always on this
attorney general, but do you think this is a more serious threat to his
[job]?" Brokaw started off critical: "Well, I think there's a lot of
explaining that the Justice Department has to do." However, he quickly
equivocated: "On the other hand, this is a complicated case, the case
involving the Fox News reporter."

Brokaw declared: "I think that the Justice Department owes the press
and the country an explanation of why they felt it was necessary to
prosecute it. And that's not been very forthcoming." He then worried
about the scandal possibly helping the GOP: "Obviously the Republicans
are taking full political advantage of all of this."

Here is a transcript of the May 30 exchange:

7:12AM ET

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And now to Washington, where as we just mentioned
the heat is on Attorney General Eric Holder. It's just one of the
controversies swirling around the White House these days. Let's turn to
Tom Brokaw, NBC News special correspondent. Tom, good morning.

GUTHRIE: I know you've got a special on the Military Channel, we want
to talk about that in a moment. But let's talk about what's happening in
Washington. Eric Holder under fire for some fairly aggressive
prosecutions involving the subpoenaing of records of reporters, and in
some cases tracking their movements. There are calls, again, for him to
resign. The heat is always on this attorney general, but do you think
this is a more serious threat to his?

BROKAW: Well, I think there's a lot of explaining that the Justice
Department has to do. On the other hand, this is a complicated case, the
case involving the Fox News reporter. Because it was a highly secretive
intelligence report that he got very early, at a time when the – when
the United States government was trying to deal with the reality of what
was going on in North Korea.

At the same time, I think that the Justice Department owes the press
and the country an explanation of why they felt it was necessary to
prosecute it. And that's not been very forthcoming. Obviously the
Republicans are taking full political advantage of all of this. I don't
think the meeting today should be off the record. I think if it's worth
knowing about, let's put it on the record.

GUTHRIE: You're referring to this meeting that the Attorney General
has called with basically the bureau chiefs of major news organizations.
Some news organizations have said, "If it's off the record, we won't
go," others have said, "We will go."

BROKAW: Yeah. I think you should insist that it go on the record. And
by the end of the day, it may be on the record because of the pressure
that is being applied. The New York Times prominent among the
institutions that said, "We're not going to be in an off-the-record
session. If we need to know about it, it ought to be in the sunshine."

GUTHRIE: And very quickly, you made a remark that journalists, on the
other hand, shouldn't have what you called a "glass jaw" when it comes
to some of these investigations, citing the First Amendment and threats
to the First Amendment.

BROKAW: Well, the First Amendment is a critically important part of
the Constitution. It is not unconditional, obviously. Any number of us
over the years have been in dialogues and in conversations with senior
government officials about when something can be disclosed and under
what circumstances. And it's kind of case by case. It's not
unconditional. So I don't know enough entirely about this case, but I do
think that it ought to be discussed out in the public.

(...)

-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.

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